How to Spot These 6 Financial Warning Signs and What They Mean

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If you read the headlines of national and local news, it is amazing that so many businesses are seemingly strong one day, and the next they are closing or filing for bankruptcy.

One of the many reasons this happens is that business owners and managers don’t pay attention (or don’t want to acknowledge) the financial warning signs that could have saved them. By the time the financial collapse starts, it’s often too late to change course.

6 Warning Signs You Can Look For

To help you spot these warning signs, here are the 6 financial red flags that we coach our clients to take action against:

  1. [The Most Telling Sign] Cash Holdings and Equity Are Lower Compared to the Previous Periods
    Take a look at your balance sheet and income statement to determine your overall cash holdings and equity (Assets-Liabilities). If your liabilities are higher, ask why.  Negotiate terms to lower credit rates, extend payment terms, etc. Involve other departments to determine how your business can operate more efficiently and cost-effectively. Discuss simple ways to increase revenue without significantly increasing overhead.
  2. Days in Accounts Receivable Increasing
    Many customers are pushing the envelope with their payment terms. Create a process for collecting outstanding receivables, and ratchet it up when customers start paying late. Customers often pay those vendors with strong systems, and delay payment to those suppliers who don’t have solid collections practices. This doesn’t mean that you won’t work with a long-standing customer who asks you for some flexibility. It does mean that you implement smart AR strategies such as late payment fees, outsourced collections help and credit reporting with clear communication and consistency.
  3. Not Enough Cash Flow for Accounts Payable
    Order in smaller quantities of goods/services from your suppliers. Talk to vendors to negotiate extended terms, leveraging your long-standing relationship and good business practices.  Use a credit card with 60-day terms to maximize the number of days to pay (make sure to review your credit card agreement and understand the terms). Search for discounts for paying within terms if your suppliers won’t stretch the terms. These strategies may not impact your cash flow immediately, but they can have an overall impact by improving your bottom line, since you are buying product or services at a lower price. Get a good handle on your inventory, turn rate, spoilage, sales trends, etc. so you actually buy smarter.
  4. Evaluate Profit Margins and Turnover Ratios
    We all know that decreasing profit margins are a bad sign, but they can’t be evaluated alone. Turnover ratios are also an important factor. Remember, mega grocery stores and warehouse clubs have low profit margins, but high turnover ratios that result in adequate net income and, more importantly, reasonable cash flow. The key is to look at both your profit margins and turnover rates together because how they interact will ultimately tell you how much cash has flowed into your bank account.
  5. Indirect Overhead Growing with Increase in Sales
    Take a hard look at operations. Are you running as efficiently as you could be? Are your employees productive or can they take on more responsibilities? There are more costs to adding employees than just salary, benefits and taxes. You have equipment, space, recruiting/training time, etc. for each employee you hire. The goal is to increase sales without increasing your fixed overhead. If you find there is nothing you can do to avoid increasing your fixed costs, you might need to re-evaluate your business strategy to determine how you can raise your profit margins to accommodate for your increase.
  6. Warning Signs Outside Your Business
    Every business should use and review a weekly dashboard that includes many of the warning sign financial metrics listed above: gross profit margin, average daily outstanding AR, inventory turns, days payable outstanding, available line of credit, operating profit margin, etc.  But ultimately, there are other warning signs that may not be on your dashboard.   Below is a story from a business who engaged a trusted advisor for an outside perspective.

 A Real-World Example of Heeding the Warning Signs

“Most people under-emphasize the available line of credit,” says Joe Dresnok, a consultant with Management Horizons. “The perfect storm for a company is a down economy, reduced sales and the inability to reduce overhead. When this happens, a company needs to access their credit lines to get through the tough times, and invest in other avenues to generate revenue.”

But during a slow economy, banks will reduce credit lines. One of Joe’s clients had a $300,000 line of credit, of which they had drawn down 1/3.  Joe and his team recommended the client draw down the rest of the credit line. Within 30 days, the bank came to give the “bad news” that they were reducing the company’s credit line to $100,000. The company was happy to report they had already tapped out all $300,000 of the original credit line. “In essence, they preserved $200,000, which translated to staying power.”  In this case, it was definitely worth the cost of that credit to preserve the line.

Each company has its own specific set of measurements (metrics) to help owners understand what to look out for in their financials. (Here are the 8 essential financial metrics we recommend tracking.)  This will at least give you the chance to prevent your company from embodying a quote from Ernest Hemingway:  When asked how one goes bankrupt, he said “Two ways:  Gradually, and then suddenly.”

Watch for the warning signs!

The Numbers Coach Stitches Together Financial Plan for Fabric Company

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big duck canvas logo

The Company
Big Duck Canvas (“BDC”), founded by Shawn Mitchell, provides high quality fabrics, canvas and threads to both wholesale and retail stores. Their services include customer cut-and-sew fabrics and fabric printing, which adds a customer’s design features to a fabric. BDC distributes its products throughout North America and can be found online at www.bigduckcanvas.com

The Situation
The BDC team wanted to enhance their financial management and reporting. They were looking to create a platform to communicate the company’s key performance indicators (“KPIs”) that drive its financial results and gain a better understanding of their numbers. The BDC team wanted a financial “road map” that could guide them as they made financial decisions regarding strategies for growth.

The Solution: Numbers Coaching
Numbers Coach (“NC”) coaching services was an ideal fit for BDC’s needs. NC developed a financial scorecard focusing on financial drivers that gave the team visibility into the profits and cash flow critical to sustained profitable growth. The scorecard offers an “at a glance” view of results. NC also developed a financial model using its Numbers NavigatorR proprietary software, providing the financial road map for the BDC team to see where they were headed with profits and cash flow. The Numbers NavigatorR provides a rolling forecast, allowing the BDC team to make financial and operational decisions towards the achievement of their goals.

The Results
NC pulled together financial and non-financial data to complete a customized scorecard and a financial model. NC met with the BDC team regularly to review results and provide numbers coaching around the financial results. From the monthly meetings, the BDC team could take actions on activities to improve the company’s bottom line results and implement best practices.

Learn more about our Numbers Coach financial leadership services here

Do You Have A Red Flag In Your Business?

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Small emerging growth companies often have limited resources and limited staff performing critical functions in accounting/finance.  Below is a list of tips that might indicate a closer look at your records for accuracy or the opportunity for fraud.

  • A spike in payroll expense without a reasonable explanation
  • Accounts receivable is growing but your sales are flat or down
  • Vendors who are being paid but you are not familiar with them
  • Human Resource records are minimal or non-existent for employee pay changes
  • Expense actual vs. budget shows a variance that is not reasonably explained
  • Prepaid expenses are growing consistently month to month but most expenses are flat or down in your income statement

I read an article recently where the same accountant who posted and deposited customer receipts had embezzled $126,000.  How?

The employee deposited customer checks to their ATM which is not always checked thoroughly the banking system.  The accountant then marked the corresponding invoice as “paid” and used the subsequent checks that came in for newer invoices.  This process could only go on for so long because the accounts receivable would grow from a larger pool of unpaid invoices.  Just as the accountant was about to leave the job, the embezzlement was discovered.

It was discovered by auditors checking on the cycle of a paid invoice; from receipt of check, to posting payment to the invoice, to depositing the check at the bank.  Some invoices shown as “paid” did not have a corresponding deposit.  Getting a copy of the deposited check from the customer revealed a different account number from the company’s account and discovered it was a personal account of the employee.

Here’s to a system of processes and activities that represents the phrase “trust but verify” to help you mitigate any circumstances where the health of your business is compromised!

Mike

Measuring Your Performance

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One of the quotes that keeps coming back to me is “What gets measured gets done.” This simple mantra has held true for me both professionally and personally.  I sat down the other day to look at a set of goals that I had set 5 years ago.  I actually had forgotten about the document until I ran across it while cleaning out paperwork to start my new year.

It is amazing to see the power of writing down the goals and how they actually came true.  Not all of mine happened, but a good chunk of them did.  

Here were my goals:  

  • Take a family trip to Europe.  Checked that one off despite having three teenage girls going in multiple directions with their activities.   
  •  Expand our current home or find one more suitable. . . four years later, a more suitable house became available.
  • Be a part of a charitable foundation that gave back into my community…done, I began serving on the board of New American Pathways three years later.

For me the quote “from lips to pencil tips” says it all.  Once I write down the goal and use the SMART principles…accomplishment is not too far away.  SMART goals are: 

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Actionable
  • Realistic
  • Time bound

What are your goals?  Have you written them down?  Can you measure them? 

My challenge to you is to write down up to three goals you want to accomplish over 1, 2 or 3 years.  Check on them every so often, and then 4 or 5 years later you will see the power of performance measurement.

Here’s to achieving SMART goals!  

Mike

The Numbers Coach Builds Financial Blueprint for Sustainability Company to Grow

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The Company

Sustainable Investment Group (“SIG”), founded by Charlie Cichetti and Jason Kiefer, provides sustainability services to commercial property owners. SIG provides high quality services for LEED certification with commercial buildings. A LEED certified building ensures the property uses sustainable activities to help protect our environment. SIG offers LEED training, consulting, and engineering services domestically and internationally. SIG has become an industry leader and expert in LEED practices.

Situation

In 2020 the SIG team wanted to enhance their financial management and reporting. They were looking to create a platform to communicate the company’s key performance indicators (“KPIs”) that drive its financial results. In addition, the SIG team wanted a “road map” that could guide them as they made financial decisions impacting strategies for growth.

Solution:  Numbers Coach Leadership and Numbers Navigator Services

The Numbers Coach‘s financial leadership services, led by Mike Iverson, were an ideal fit for developing SIG’s performance metrics. Iverson developed a financial scorecard focusing financial drivers that give the team visibility into the profits and cash flow critical to sustained profitable growth. The scorecard offers an “at a glance” view of results. Using our proprietary software (the Numbers NavigatorR), the Numbers Coach plan provided the road map for the SIG team to see where they were headed with profits and cash flow. The model provides a rolling forecast during the year so that the SIG team could make financial and operational decisions “on the go” to achieve their goals.

Results

Iverson pulled together financial and non-financial data to complete a customized scorecard and financial model. Each month, the Numbers Coach meets with the SIG team to methodically review results and provide the input and analysis from the Numbers NavigatorR software. From the monthly financial coaching meetings, the SIG team can take actions on activities that improve the company’s bottom line results.

For more information on Sustainable Investment Group visit www.sigearth.com

To learn more about Numbers Coach services, click here

“Mike has been an important part of our team.  His understanding of financial processes, cash flow, and how to explain our results gives our team the right tools to navigate our finances successfully and stay focused on our financial goals.”  

– CHARLIE CICHETTI

Do You Know Your ROCE?

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How Measuring Your Return on Capital Employed is Critical for Financial Health

There are so many ways to measure a company’s financial success: profit margin, return on equity, and return on invested capital.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) is a lesser known but equally important financial indicator. ROCE is especially useful for evaluating your company’s macro level financials or other companies to invest in. It’s essential because it goes beyond simple profit margins to specifically assess how well a company runs, conducts its business, and returns value to investors.

ROCE is the total of a firm’s assets and revenues minus current liabilities. The ROCE ratio is simple:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)/Capital Employed

The higher the result of the formula, the more efficiently a company is utilizing its capital. If a company’s ROCE has gone up since last year or in the last few years, it indicates a company is going in the right direction. At a minimum, ROCE should exceed the cost of capital (financing costs), or the company can find itself in a bad financial state.

ROCE is especially useful in comparing how different companies in the same industry leverage their capital, particularly in capital-intense industries like energy, auto, and telecommunications that habitually hold a large amount of debt.

Don’t confuse ROCE with ROE (return on equity), even though both are profitability ratios that measure a company’s profitability as related to funds invested. ROE takes profits generated from shareholders’ equity into consideration, as opposed to ROCE, which uses all capital employed including the company’s debt.

ROCE percentage is one of the tools for judging the performance of managers and how effectively they are running a business. It’s a good idea to look at the industry average and the ROCE of competing companies.  The ROCE percentage is one of the few metrics that does allow you to compare across industries and within your industry.

If employed capital is not given in financial statement notes, it can be calculated by subtracting current liabilities from total assets. Watch for poor quality profits, such as the sale of expensive equipment that can’t be repeated regularly, as these can create an artificially high ROCE. Other factors such as leasing versus purchasing equipment can also lead to a slightly higher ROCE.

Despite the value of evaluating a company’s ROCE, it should not be the only factor used for an accurate assessment of financial stability; other probability ratios certainly contribute to the whole picture.  However, knowing your ROCE percentage is important metric for a business owner to keep track.  Your ROCE percentage provides the business owner the return they are getting on their investment in the company.

If you want to learn your ROCE percentage, feel free to reach out to Mike to get a free template at Mike@trilliumfinancial.com.

Small Business Matters: “The Importance of Financial Management”

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In this episode of the “Small Business Matters” podcast, Numbers Coach Mike Iverson discusses the importance of careful financial management for the long-term survival of your business:

How ABC can Help with Your 123s

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by Anne Moore Odell

Sometimes, it can feel like your hands are tied when it comes to costs—everything from rent and salaries to materials. As you closely examine every line of your company’s income statements looking for ways to cut costs and grow profits, pay particular attention to direct and indirect costs as two levers you can adjust to maximize revenues.

Smart companies are figuring out which indirect and direct costs are fundamental to their operations, which activities can be outsourced, and which can be done away with altogether. Activity-based costing (ABC) is a powerful method for computing indirect and direct costs, to help you determine precisely where money is being spent and made.

Defining Direct and Indirect Costs

Simply defined, direct costs vary with your sales while indirect costs do not vary directly with changes in sales. Explains Mike Iverson, Numbers Coach, “If you don’t sell a widget, your direct cost isn’t there, but if you don’t sell a widget, you still have indirect costs.”  Direct and indirect costs are sometimes also referred to as variable vs. fixed cost.

Direct costs can be logically connected to the creation of a product or the completion of a service. These costs can include materials and labor. It is even possible to calculate the exact cost of the materials used to create one unit of a product and the amount of labor necessary.

Indirect costs are the bucket into which the other costs of doing business are dropped, including rent, marketing, sales, accounting and executive costs. Indirect costs are more difficult to connect to the cost of your product and service. For example, if you make three product lines, it is very difficult to directly correlate the salary of the receptionist to a unit of product.

“Indirect costs, sometimes referred to as overhead, are controlled using a combination of vendor contracts, vigilant operators and timely financial reports,” says Bob Wagner, President of NetFinancials, Inc. headquartered in Atlanta. “We have one operator that paid a substantial amount for on-going repairs and maintenance expense. Most of the repair expense has been consolidated in a single vendor, which the operator monitors very closely using the budgeting feature in the financial reports that we provide.”


ABC Tracks and Applies Actions to Accounting

Activity-based costing (“ABC”) can help you understand and manage costs by looking at every activity in a business, and then assigning the cost of the activity to the product created. This makes it possible to designate more costs as direct versus lumping costs into indirect.

Iverson says that with ABC companies need to ask, “What activities do I engage in to make this product and how can I allocate my burden to that product?” In this model, companies examine which activities are driving both direct and indirect costs. Instead of lumping all indirect costs an indirect cost pool, activity-based accounting allocates and tracks expenses as they occur by activity.

“Activities-based accounting can get to the nitty-gritty of WHY you are incurring the cost in the first place,” says Iverson.

For example, assume Widget Company audits their client’s freight bills as their service.  The freight bills are received electronically directly from the client’s freight carrier vendor.  Widget Company has an Information Technology Department (“IT”) that maintains the computers and equipment which perform the audit of the client freight bills.  Can IT costs get allocated?  If so, how?  Widget Company using ABC determined that the maintenance and repair of the computers and equipment occurred based on the use of the equipment, in other words the volume of transactions getting audited by the systems.  Based on how many freight transactions were audited (the “activity”) Widget Company determined the best allocation of the IT maintenance and repairs expense was based on the number of audited freight bill transactions.  The allocation using ABC enabled Widget Company to a better picture of profitability by client.

Working with Costs in Real Time

Reviewing your income statements shouldn’t be just a quarterly or annual activity it should be monthly so that you can find ways to manage and limit expenses. One proven method of cutting both indirect and direct costs is following them as they occur.  “Accurate, timely financial statements and reports are essential in giving management the information they need to manage their direct costs,” explains Wagner. “With the speed of today’s business, only real-time reports give managers the feedback they need to manage costs.”

Wagner gives as an example the weekly report his company delivers to clients. Sales, cost of sales, banking, credit card and payroll data are obtained in real time using scanners, email and high-speed Internet. Weekly reports are prepared within 48 hours of receiving the data, ensuring that managers stay informed and on top of their operations.

Let us know how we can help you with ABC in your company.

Wondering How Your Company Stacks Up Against the Competition?

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by Michael Iverson

At one time or another, every business owner yearns to see how his or her company stacks up against the competition within the same industry. Comparing a company’s financial performance against that of its peers is likely to provide clues about how to improve the company’s results. For instance, it would be important to know whether a company’s administrative costs are significantly higher than those of others in the same industry.

Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to access competitive data. Competitive companies aren’t likely to publicly share financial results. Even if they do share some information, a large difference in size of a comparative company makes analysis difficult.

One way around the problem is to conduct the analysis using a Common-Size Income Statement, which converts a company’s income statement from dollars to percentages.  Every line on the income statement is expressed as a percentage of Net Sales.

Using common-size income statements makes it possible to compare companies that are different in terms of size but in the same industry. While it might seem unlikely to compare two competitors with Net Sales of $4 million and $100 million respectively, focusing on percentages can bring relevance to the analysis.  It also helps spot trends in your business, when comparing results to a prior period, for instance.  You can address the issues before it’s too late.

In the example below, Warning Lights of North Georgia’s income statement is shown alongside its common-size income statement. In the left-hand column are raw, dollar-denominated figures. The right-hand column shows the converted percentages.  The percentages are based on a percentage of sales.  In other words, you would divide the expense by the sales.  For example, in the spreadsheet below, selling expense of 11.9% is determined by the following formula: 1,223,000/10,281,000= 11.9%.

 

Now, Warning Lights of North Georgia’s results can be compared – line by line if so desired – to those of any other company in the industry.  (The financial statements of publicly-traded companies are accessible through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database or its Canadian equivalent SEDAR.)  Industry averages are compiled by national trade associations and a handful of competitive intelligence information services.  Banks, business brokers and good business libraries are likely sources of such information.

Using common-size financial statements, it is possible to determine how your company performs within its industry against the competition. Common-size income statements may be particularly useful in measuring the cost-effectiveness and profitability of a company against its peers as well as spotting trends when comparing multiple periods of your own financial results.

What Is the Balanced Scorecard? (And Why Should You Care?)

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By Michael Iverson

If a business advisor told you that more than half of the largest U.S. corporations used a particular management tool, chances are pretty good that you would be interested in using it for your business.   The balanced scorecard is, in fact, widely used by America’s largest companies. Editors of the Harvard Business Review named it one of the most influential business ideas of the past 75 years.

The purpose of the balanced scorecard is alignment of strategy with the daily activities of a business.  It was introduced as a performance measurement framework in the 1990s by two business professors — Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton. The idea is to augment traditional financial business metrics with strategic, non-financial performance measurements. In combination, the two very different kinds of measurements provide a more balanced view of a company’s performance, especially its progress toward achieving long-term, strategic objectives.

A Change of Focus

The balanced scorecard attempts to address a long-time shortcoming of U.S. businesses – their focus on attainment of quarterly earnings goals, while paying too little attention to building long-term value. By focusing on near-term earnings, which are easily measurable, American businesses often neglect investment in intangibles, the returns of which are more difficult to measure.

Focusing on past events causes companies to under-invest in important areas like product and process innovation, building and retaining employee skills, and improving customer satisfaction levels.  These intangibles contribute significantly to the long-term value of a business.  Companies create future value by investing in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology and innovation – the intangibles that matter today.

Companies can only improve management of their intangible assets if they integrate measurement of those intangibles into their management systems. This notion led to development of a management tool for describing, communicating and implementing strategy – the balanced scorecard.

The scorecard envisions a company’s Vision and Strategy at the center of a continuous feedback loop, surrounded by four perspectives, each with its own business metrics. A company collects and analyzes data relative to each perspective.

The Learning & Growth Perspective

Employee training, individual growth and company-wide improvement are hallmarks of great companies. Employees who embrace technological advances and mentoring become more productive. Their collective knowledge significantly enhances the company’s value.

The Business Process Perspective

Managers need to know how well the business is performing based on its internal processes. Are the internal processes allowing the company to produce quality products and services, while achieving incremental improvement? The metrics for this perspective are unique to each business and should be designed by managers who are intimately aware of both internal processes and customer needs.

The Customer Perspective

Perhaps the most important management concept of recent years is the realization that meeting, if not exceeding, customer expectations is a leading indicator of business success. Customers whose expectations are met or exceeded become extremely loyal, building business value. When expectations are not met, customers begin to look for other suppliers.

The Financial Perspective

Traditional financial analysis does provide useful information. Kaplan and Norton suggest that it is most useful when it encompasses risk assessment and cost-benefit measurements, and when it is balanced by data from the other three perspectives.

If you would like help in creating a balanced scorecard for your business, just give us a call at (404) 353-2148 or send us an email, and we will be happy to help!

Numbers Coach Establishes Financial Infrastructure for Start-Up

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SITUATION

BodyBlocks Nutrition Systems began their business launch in 2003.  The Founders were excited about their plans and the products that they would offer.  The Company received seed capital from friends and family to take the business from an idea on paper to a proof-of-concept.  The idea passed the feasibility study, and they were ready to raise the necessary capital to launch the business.

Body Blocks realized they needed a financial consultant who could take them from an idea to launch, and on to the next level as an emerging growth business. What did they need?

  • A comprehensive financial model designed to match their business strategy
  • Capital
  • Basic Financial Reporting
  • Administrative Infrastructure (financial, risk management, and human resource functions)

SOLUTION: Numbers Coach Financial Services

At the end of 2003, BodyBlocks hired the Numbers Coach “NC”) to help them in their financial leadership.  They did not have a need for a full-time CFO, but did need the financial expertise.  NC immediately designed a financial model so the company could begin the process of telling its “story” to potential investors, and raise the necessary capital to launch its products.  Within a few weeks the model was complete and ready for investor meetings.

At the same time NC began establishing infrastructure for the company finance and accounting functions.  A foundation was created so that costs were variable and fit the specific needs of an emerging growth company in the early stages of its evolution.  NC also advised Body Blocks on how to secure the right level of business insurance to protect company assets.

NC managed and designed the human resource functions, bringing together key HR resources to develop critical documents, formal personnel files, and policies.  Payroll solutions were implemented to ensure all taxes were reported in a timely manner.

Understanding Your Financial Story: The Numbers Coach’s Numbers Navigator

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I have heard many times that business owners feel that their financial statements are written in a foreign language or that their financials feel like peering into a big black box uncertain what it truly contains.  Others describe it as a fog where they see the outline of their business but it’s not clear how to navigate the rugged coastline.

Often a business owner will understand the income statement and the fact that if you have a positive number at the bottom of the report, it’s good.  The bigger the better!  But then I hear, “wow I had a good year but I don’t have any cash left to pay my bills or make other investments.”

Your financial story has two sides to it, not just one.  It has the income statement plus the balance sheet.  Your balance sheet story is important because if you don’t manage it properly, it can “rob Peter”- the income statement, to “pay Paul”- the balance sheet.  How you manage your working capital will ultimately tell you how much cash is left in your bank account.

Before we go further, let’s define key components of working capital that drive cash flow.  In most companies Accounts Receivable, Inventory, and Accounts Payable are key cash flow working capital components.  How you manage these three key balance sheet accounts determines how much cash is left over.  Simply put, you want to have the shortest payment terms possible for your customers (Accounts Receivable) and you want the longest payment terms possible to pay your vendors (Accounts Payable).   For your inventory, you want to turn it over quickly and not let it sit in your warehouse gathering dust.

By connecting the financial story of the income statement to the financial story of the balance sheet, you can effectively see how cash flow is generated and how much of it you get to keep.

The Numbers Coach’s (“NC”) Numbers Navigator™ helps lift the fog and navigates you to the safety of the harbor where your company can see how to re-fuel and get back out on the high seas of commerce.  Through Trillium’s financial coaching and data gathering process, we gain an understanding of the business model and its drivers to effectively recommend actions best suited for a company to increase cash flow.

NC’s Financial Coaching services and Numbers Navigator™ helped Prominent Placement, Inc. (“PPI”) learn what financial drivers would help the business generate more cash flow and achieve several key financial goals.  Click on the following link to learn more about how NC’s Numbers Navigator™ can help you:  Numbers Navigator™

“Understanding the financial end of my business has always been my weakest area.  After working with a variety of other financial advisors over the years, Mike Iverson was finally able to explain my own company’s financial data to me in a way that really made sense.  He has educated me on how decisions we make all year long will impact our cash flow at the end of the year (and every day).  I feel like, after nearly a decade in business, someone has finally shined a flashlight into our numbers so that I can really see and understand them.  I feel much more in control.”

Stacy Williams
Prominent Placement, Inc.